Pill counting in pharmacies is necessary for the filling of prescriptions. Heretofore, this counting process involved a pharmacist or other qualified pharmacy employee pouring out a quantity of pills or capsules from a supply container and manually counting the required number of pills. The excess units are then returned to the supply bottle, while the proper number of counted units is poured into a vial to be presented to the patient for whom the prescription was written.
More recently, a variety of devices have been developed and utilized to count pills or capsules automatically, thus eliminating or reducing the need for manual counting. These devices also serve to decrease human error and improve counting accuracy. Such devices, however, typically utilize complex mechanisms and complex electronic control. This complexity tends to drive up the cost of automated pill counters, making them expensive to build, purchase, and maintain.
While most pill counting devices involve substantial complexity and cost, an alternative approach has been described in the recent art that provides automated counting with greatly reduced electromechanical complexity and cost. This approach utilizes digital image capture means to provide suitably programmed image processing means with information sufficient to count the number of pills present within the area imaged by the digital image capture device.
Current commercially available pill counting systems include Kirby Lester's KL1, KL1plus, KL15e, KL20, and KL30, Avery Weightronix's Eyecon, Innovation's Optix. The Kirby Lester products require the user to pour the pills through a funnel and the pills are counted as they break the beam of a counting sensor. The Eyecon and Optix products use a camera to capture an image of the pills on a tray in order to determine the number of pills.
The following patents and publications describe prior art pill counting systems and are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Publication No. US2013/0221082 describes an apparatus for identifying a medicinal substance. A tray receives and concurrently supports a plurality of pills formed at least in part from the medicinal substance. A computer-readable memory stores a drug database including one or more identifying features for identifying different pills formed at least in part from different medicinal substances. A recognition device is arranged to interrogate the pills on the tray and detect at least one of the identifying features from the pills. A controller receives the identifying feature(s) detected by the recognition device and determines the identity of the medicinal substance from among the different medicinal substances in the drug database based on the identifying feature(s).
International Publication No. WO2014/065872 describes embodiments of work stations for use in medical dose preparation management system. A work station may include a camera stand. The camera stand may include a housing enclosing a camera and one or more light sources therein. As such, the camera and light sources may be directed at a medical dose preparation staging region to capture medical dose preparation images of the medical dose preparation staging region. The camera stand may include an adjustable support positionable in a plurality of positions to dispose the camera and light source relative to the medical dose preparation staging region. A base with a removable tray may be provided that include medical receptacle engagement features. The work stations may facilitate improved image quality, efficiency of work flows carried out at the work station, and administrative tasks such as cleaning.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,457,384 describes a universal counting and measurement system and method. The system and method are not restricted to a specific application, aimed at counting a specific type of object, but are capable of counting objects of a large variety of sizes and shapes. According to certain embodiments, the system and method are also capable of measuring volumes of materials held within a container or piled on a surface. The shape of the containers or the shape of the pile of material are not limited to a certain prescribed architecture. According to certain embodiments, the system is easily adapted to the different applications and can be made ready to work in a short time. The system is also capable of counting accumulating objects or measuring accumulating volumes within one or more containers or piles.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,712,163 describes a computer-implemented method of pill analysis including the steps of acquiring a pill image having an image frame and detecting contrast shifts within the image frame to locate at least one object with an object outline. A first value for the object(s) is determined, where the value is an area, a position, a length, a width, an angle, a color, a brightness, a code, a shape, a crystal pile size, a crystal geometry, a substance identity, or a character identity. Based on the first and second values, the computer outputs a result to a user.
U.S. Publication No. US2013/0142406 describes a method of processing graphical image data representing optically scanned medication-related units may include receiving image data generated responsive to disposal of the units on a tray disposed a distance from an image acquisition component, the image data including data indicative of visually observable features of the units disposed on the tray. The method further includes comparing at least two features among the visually observable features from the image data to reference data indicative of corresponding features of reference units. The reference data is selected for comparison based on an identification of the reference data as corresponding to a prescription being processed. The reference data includes data indicative of features of the reference units extracted from images captured using hardware corresponding to hardware used to generate the image data. The method further includes generating a likelihood rating for each of the at least two features based on the comparing.